Nature has almost as many variations of the salad leaf as there are varieties in plant life. We as a nation have educated our grocers and vegetable stores to sell only the most commonly accepted types of salad greens. But in some markets it is possible to buy the most delicious leaves, and perhaps also to grow a small garden of the delicious herbs and salad leaves for our own kitchen.
Take the unique sorrel, fennel and watercress. They are delicious salads in themselves. Endive, dandelion greens, nasturtium leaves, young baby buckwheat leaves, purslane, radicchio, and many varieties of lettuce and romaine are available.
We have many fascinating salads in our health food repertoire: the vegetable salad, the fish salad, the meat salad, and the fruit salad. But the king of all salads is the leafy green salad and its blood sister, the wild and cultivated seasoning herb.
Let’s not cut those vegetables very thin, since the cut portions when exposed to the air lose vitamin content. Serve those vegetables as fresh and crisp as possible, which is not only good from a taste and appearance standpoint, but also from a nutritional standpoint.
It is impossible to name the countless variations and combinations of vegetables and herbs. The good cook is always interested in experimenting and creating true adventures in delicious eating.
Use any combination of young salad leaves, as tips or tops of various vegetables. Sprinkle these leaves with some mint or any of the greens from around the spring landscape of wildflowers. Don’t be afraid to use wildflower leaves if you know what the flowers are. There’s shepherd’s purse, wild arugula, sweet and sour, even the fresh young shoots of spring milkweed, dandelions, oxalis, sorrel and, of course, all the fresh novelties from the garden: turnips, radishes and leaves. mustard. We can use any combination we can find and mix with a French or salad dressing of our choice.
Many of the following fresh fruits can be combined in a delicious fruit salad: apples, bananas, cherries, figs, currants, grapes, grapefruit, oranges, mangoes, papayas, blackberries, peaches, pears, apricots, tangerines, tangerines, plums, Nectarines, pineapple, prunes, strawberries, blackberries, blackberries, melons, watermelons, and melons of all kinds can be used alone or mixed within the melon family independently of other fruits. Almost any fruit can be used in a fruit salad and combined with low-fat cottage cheese, lemon mayonnaise, shredded coconut, honey, or yogurt. A good health food cook will do his own experiments.